At last, the reviewer has something positive to say about Kit Derrick! Hope Is A Six Letter Word is quite different from the author’s earlier books, and is probably his best to date. It must be a difficult book to pitch (as it is to review) as it is part literary fiction and part romance, but doesn’t really fit entirely into either genre. It also has twists (including the title), which you can’t really address without spoilers.
Derrick always seems to have a new trick for each book, and this time we find that one of the characters speaks French (don’t worry, footnotes translate). This is particularly impressive as important puns are in French, and the author doesn’t actually speak that language. Maybe he gets his need to feel clever out through that, as the rest of the book is far more straightforward than usual. There are the distinctive switches in point of view and tense that he seems to insist on using, sometimes unnecessarily, but these seem to be for a specific purpose this time, guiding the reader between internal thoughts and narrator voice. There is more emotion and pathos than Derrick’s previous books, but what is particularly effective is the last chapter. Having ‘completed’ one story, the final, extended section, presents the action from another character’s perception, and adds much needed depth to what has already been read.
Derrick actually tells the story of two separate people, who share a physical journey together, but have vastly different experiences of it, and this is done without too much cliché, and nice amount of humour so the characters don’t take themselves too seriously.
If you haven’t read any of his books before, this is a good place to start, and should appeal to a fairly broad audience. I’m aware Derrick also wrote an additional chapter, a third character, which adds further twists and a lot of backstory to the main female protagonist, but I think he made the correct decision I not including it in the main book. I believe, when a certain number of copies have been read he will be adding it to this website for free!
Available from Amazon – mybook.to/Hope2022
Stay safe,
Kit